Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Discusses Recovery Support Policies with Employed and Re-entrepreneur Small Business Owners

Oh Young-joo, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, held the 8th “Small Business Owners’ Practical Policy Council” (hereinafter referred to as the Policy Council) on the 5th at the Ansan Women’s Human Resources Development Center, an advanced reemployment training institution located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. At this meeting, they shared excellent cases from the field and discussed the future direction of policies under the theme of ‘Small Business Owners’ Restart Support Policy’ together with small business owners who are employed or re-starting their businesses.

Now in its 8th session, the “Small Business Owners’ Practical Policy Council” is a communication platform for small business owners newly established shortly after Minister Oh’s inauguration. It is a place to visit the field directly, listen to the difficulties small business owners face in their livelihoods, and frankly discuss future policy directions to improve these issues.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, is attending and speaking at the Economic Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul on the 21st. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

The 8th Policy Council took the theme of ‘Support for Restarting Small Business Owners Who Have Closed Their Businesses’ to discuss restart support policies needed on-site by meeting small business owners who have faced business closures due to the prolonged high interest rates and high inflation and are now taking on new challenges through employment or re-starting their businesses.

At the Policy Council, time was allocated to introduce the direction of the ‘New Start Hope Project,’ which will expand and reorganize the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ representative small business restart support program, the Hope Return Package, in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labor starting next year.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the ‘New Start Hope Project’ supporting employment and re-startup of small business owners from January 2025, the progress of inter-ministerial cooperation for specialized employment support, prepared re-startup, and expanded store demolition costs was shared. They also discussed the significant increase in the Hope Return Package budget in the 2025 government budget proposal, rising from 151.3 billion won this year to 245 billion won, an increase of 93.7 billion won (61.9%).

Following this, support success cases were presented by the operating institutions of employment and re-startup programs, sharing excellent outcomes.

Lee Han-seung, director of the Seocho Women’s Human Resources Development Center, an employment education institution for small business owners who have closed their businesses, introduced the case of trainee Lee Yong-mi, who operated a convenience store for nine years but closed it in November 2023 and psychologically expressed fear of employment. Through psychological counseling and customized in-depth counseling to restore confidence, she set a career path in a job that could utilize her experience and succeeded in getting employed at a neighborhood supermarket.

Kim Hyun-chul, CEO of the Korea Service Standards Promotion Agency, an institution for re-startup education, introduced K-Health Bio, founded in 2022. This company developed Altos, a hangover relief drink, with an investment of 1 billion won but faced difficulties in promotion and sales channels. Through the re-startup support project, they received support for product promotional videos and online marketing, increasing monthly sales from 3 million won to 60 million won, more than 20 times. They later added a cosmetics distribution business and succeeded in exporting to five countries, including Japan, sharing this success story.

Minister Oh stated, “We are steadily implementing the comprehensive measures for small business owners and self-employed workers prepared jointly by ministries last July, and we intend to immediately reflect and improve policies on parts pointed out as needing supplementation in the field.” He added, “We will continue to communicate with small business owners, monitor the progress of the measures, and implement policies that reflect field opinions.”